accordance for past tense

Question

Bonjour,

Some of these sentences seem to have accordance, like the final "s" added to the end of apporter in "Il les leur a apportés"

How do you decide which of the object pronouns the verb is supposed to be in accordance with?

Accepted Answer

Hi Anna,
In the sentence you mention you have two object pronouns 'les' which is direct and 'leur' which is indirect.
For instance, if you were talking of les livres and leur replacing Robert et Marie, you would say -
Il ( Jacques) les ( livres) leur (Robert +Marie ) a  apportés = He brought them to them 
apportés agrees with 'les'.
The rules of agreement of past participle with a direct object are explained in the following Kwiziq lesson -
https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar/special-cases-when-the-past-participle-agrees-in-number-and-gender-when-used-with-avoir-in-le-passe-compose-conversational-past
Also here are two links to direct and indirect object pronouns -
https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/glossary/pronoun-type/pronoms-d-objet-direct-direct-object-pronouns
https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/glossary/pronoun-type/pronoms-d-objet-indirect-indirect-object-pronouns
Hope this helps!